U.S. warns Russia as Kremlin talks about war threat in Ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meet on the sidelines of an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting in Stockholm on Thursday. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at their meeting in Stockholm on Thursday that “if Russia decides to pursue confrontation, there will be serious consequences,” adding that “the best way to avert a crisis is through diplomacy.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow that “the Ukrainian authorities’ aggressive and increasingly intensive provocative action on the line of contact” with pro-Russian separatists gives grounds for concern about a possible flare-up of hostilities. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted after meeting with Blinken in Stockholm that “we are closely working together on developing a comprehensive deterrence package, including severe economic sanctions, to demotivate Russia from further aggressive moves.” Kuleba also talked with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about “the need to deter Russia and speed up work on specific economic restrictions which will be able to hit the Russian economy should Moscow decide to launch a new stage of aggression against Ukraine.” Ex-Soviet neighbors Russia and Ukraine have remained locked in a tense tug-of-war since Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 following the ouster of the country’s Kremlin-friendly president and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, known as the Donbas. Blinken reaffirmed that the U.S. has “a strong, ironclad commitment to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.” Referring to a 2015 peace agreement for eastern Ukraine brokered by France and Germany and signed in Minsk, Belarus, Blinken called for a “full implementation of the Minsk agreements with Russia pulling back its forces.” Addressing the OSCE meeting, Blinken urged Russia “to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity to de-escalate, reverse the recent troop buildup, return forces to normal peaceful positions, and to implement the Minsk commitments.” The 2015 Minsk deal included an OSCE-monitored ceasefire, a pullback of heavy weapons and foreign fighters from the line of contact and an exchange of prisoners of war. In his speech at the OSCE meeting, Lavrov urged Ukraine to grant autonomy to the rebel regions as required by the Minsk deal, warning that Kyiv’s refusal to honor it is a “way toward a catastrophe.” He also warned Biden at their meeting that “any further NATO expansion eastward undoubtedly compromises our core security interests.” The top Russian diplomat charged that the West is “playing with fire” when it argues that Russia doesn’t have a say in NATO’s expansion plans.